Germany: Bayern and Leipzig hanging on at home
Bayern Munich, leaders of the Bundesliga, conceded a draw (1-1) on Saturday at their home ground against Bayer Leverkusen on the occasion of the 25th day.
Niklas Süle opened the scoring for Bayern in the 18th minute, and Thomas Müller scored the first own goal of his career in the 36th minute to equalize for Leverkusen.
Still leaders after 25 days, the Bavarians extend their lead over Dortmund to nine points. Borussia will not play this weekend as their match was postponed due to an explosion in Covid-19 cases at Mainz, which they were due to face on Sunday.
In the other results of the afternoon, note the draw of Leipzig, hung at home by Freiburg (1-1).
At the end of the afternoon, Stuttgart managed to overthrow a still worrying Borussia Mönchengladbach (3-2), despite goals from Alassane Pléa and Marcus Thuram. The VfB can still believe in the maintenance, which moves away for Greuther Furth, beaten in Bochum and dead last.
England: Chelsea wake up at Burnley, minimum service for Liverpool
Chelsea woke up to easily beat the relegated Burnley (4-0) on Saturday during the 28th day of the Premier League.
After a first period at a trot, the Blues put the turbo on the return from the locker room, in the wake of the trio Reece James (a goal, an assist), Christian Pulisic (idem) and Kai Havertz (doubled).
This great success against weak Clarets allows Thomas Tuchel’s men to consolidate their third place, with a six-point lead over Manchester United and one game less to play.
In front, Liverpool came back to within three points of the leader, Manchester City, thanks to their short but precious victory against West Ham (1-0). Opportunistic, Sadio Mané victoriously took over a strike from Trent Alexander-Arnold (27th), before a tense second period in which the Reds failed to make the break.
Already deprived at the start of Declan Rice, the Hammers lost Jarrod Bowen to injury and saw the top 4 move away…
Earlier in the afternoon, Leicester City prepared the reception of Rennes well in the round of 16 of the Europa League Conference: the Foxes dominated Leeds (1-0) thanks to an achievement by Harvey Barnes.
The Peacocks and their new coach Jesse Marsch are treading water at the bottom of the standings, unlike Newcastle and Brentford, who are giving themselves some air thanks to their success against Brighton (2-1) and Norwich (3-1) respectively. ).
Italy: Roma resist Atalanta
Roma won at home against Atalanta Bergamo (1-0) on Saturday during the 28th day of Serie A, and continues its good momentum in the race for European places.
The Giallorossi are sixth (47 points) three points behind Juventus Turin, the first provisionally qualified for the Champions League.
Above all, the Romans have a seventh match without defeat in the league, all against lower ranked teams except this one.
Roma were solid, if not brilliant or exciting, like the principles of play of their coach José Mourinho. A goal from his English striker Tammy Abraham half an hour into the game was enough to make him happy.
Without their attackers Duvan Zapata and Josip Ilicic, Atalanta ran out of ideas, failing to worry Roma.
The Roman rival, Lazio, also won in the evening in Sardinia against Cagliari (3-0), quickly put into orbit by a penalty from Ciro Immobile (19th) and a counter flash concluded by Luis Alberto (42nd). Maurizio Sarri’s men come back to a point of fifth place.
Spain: Real Madrid play against Real Sociedad
Dress rehearsal and mixed fortunes for PSG and Real Madrid four days before the knockout stages of the Champions League. While PSG were crucified at the end of the match in Nice (1-0), Real crushed Real Sociedad at home this Saturday (4-1). The Merengues thus consolidate their leading position (63 points), eight points ahead of Sevilla FC, hooked on Friday by Alavés (0-0).
And the people of Madrid will have shown great strength of character. Behind the score after taking a penalty from Mikel Oyarzabal after a premature foul by Dani Carvajal on David Silva (10th), Carlo Ancelotti’s men fought back just before the break thanks to two sublime shots from far left foot signed Eduardo Camavinga (40th ) and Luka Modric (43rd).
At the end of the match, Karim Benzema converted a penalty following a foul by Aritz Elustondo on Vinicius at the edge of the Basque area (75th), then Marco Asensio, who came into play two minutes earlier in place of Rodrygo, pushed a discount from Carvajal into the back of the net to seal the merengue success (79th).